Some topical advice for hotels and resorts

Two bits of advice for hotels and resorts.

We’re all looking forward to an eventual break in this crisis. But there are a couple of useful things you can do right now.

1) Don’t wait to plan, and 2) be aggressively creative.

To the first point: Too often we find ourselves with a marketing problem to deal with and not enough time to do it. Or not enough time to really do it right. You have plenty of time now, time to put together a plan you can launch quickly. Time to keep at it until you develop something innovative.

Something aggressively creative. Which brings us to our second point.

Now is not the time to be passive or to keep on with the same kinds of offers and specials everybody else is probably doing. It’s not the time now and it’s not going to be the time for quite a while.

So resist the usual. Maybe scare yourself a little. Don’t just think “out of the box,” think way out of the box. Maybe even bring somebody on board to help who does that sort of thing for a living.

The market is smaller. A lot of people are going to be fighting for that same remaining slice of pie. Those who can demand attention are going to be the ones getting the most to eat.

And bright colors will always attract more attention than dull ones.

The more you can do now, the better positioned you're going to be to succeed when this health crisis-induced recession eases. That’s a fact. You can look it up.

Seems like everything about the hospitality market sucks these days, but it’s not going to suck forever. How well you plan and how aggressively you respond is going to have a whole lot to do with whether and how quickly you bounce back.

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New ideas and how you react to them

How do you react to a new idea?

Yikes! We're in some uncharted territory right now, aren't we? 

So it's going to be very useful for all of us to be open to new ideas. Especially those of us in the hospitality business. And even more especially for independent hotels and resorts competing with big brands and their big loyalty clubs.
Innovation and creativity have always been important, but now they're critical. 

Your reaction to thinking and ideas that may make you uncomfortable is going to be a key to success. From investing in marketing when occupancy and revenues are down, to innovative compensation approaches for your partners, to looking at different marketing communications channels, to employing creativity that is a bit more aggressive and edgy than you're used to, be open to it.
Which means your first reaction to an idea that you or anybody else has should not be "well we can't do that because . . . "

The most important thing to consider - and consider first - is whether or not doing something can potentially benefit you. If the answer is "No," then drop it and forget about it. Nothing to see here folks, just move along.
Ah, but if there's a potential benefit for the short, medium or long term, you work out how to do it. It's a simple process, really: 

1. Here's an idea. Can it be good for us?
Yes. Do it.
No. Forget it.

2. So the answer is "Yes." Are there any issues with carrying it out?
Nope. We're good. Let's get to it.
Yes. So let's figure it out.

3. Did we figure it out?
Yes. Cool. Let's do it.
No. OK, we'll keep thinking.

4. Did we figure out a solution this time?
Yes. Great.
No. Oh well, there are more ideas where that came from.

This is not to say that every idea has value. Or that every idea will be easy to carry out. It's just that you ought to think first about whether or not an idea can provide some benefit before you dismiss it out of hand. 

If it will, then figure out how to do it. 

When your first thought is why something won't work, you're starting from a negative place. And nothing good ever comes from a negative place.  

We've quoted George Lois before, but here it is again. "Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."
If something is worth doing, it's worth figuring out how to do it.

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"This is what we got . . "

 

“This is what we got.

If you want it, come in and get it.”

That’s how action-hero Jack Reacher described the window of a retail store in The Enemy. Nothing else about that book is relevant here, but the way he described that window reminded us of some websites we’ve seen. Not focused on tempting the user.

Your website is probably on a very short list of marketing tools you still have turned on. So it better be doing more than just showing up. What it better be doing is creating desire for your property.

Pre-Covid, you might have been able to just to sit back with a “Here’s what we got” website and get your fair share of bookings, more or less. Plus there was repeat business. You got some web traffic from PPC, some from advertising or PR and some just stumbled in out of the cold. A website with some beauty shots, room descriptions and special offers was generally serviceable.

Those days are over.

You’re probably advertising a lot less, so when you do get a visitor, you need to work it. Sell the joys and benefits of your property. Don’t just present information and let visitors draw their own conclusions. Even repeat customers need to be sold on coming back now.

The irony is, with revenues down, coming up with the money to re-vamp your website can be a challenge.

So there are two things here. There’s no getting around the fact that finding a way to invest in keeping your brand message alive and in front of people is worthwhile. Not necessarily because it’s going to fill the place up tomorrow, but because if you make that investment now, then you’re going to do a lot better a lot more quickly when things loosen up. That’s a fact. Maybe take a little bit from other budgets here and there. Definitely look into barters, trades and extended payments, but don’t just go totally dark.

Here’s something else. As beneficial as it might be to re-do your whole website, if you even just re-purpose your home page, you’ll be ahead of the game. The cost/benefit equation there can be pretty favorable.

Your home page is like those store windows. Or the guy who works the sidewalk outside a hoochie-coochie show. It’s there to hook your audience and give them a reason to come in and look around. And ultimately, spend money.

Don’t fill it up with mountains of copy nobody is going to read, SEO fantasies be damned. Make it easy for visitors to get the point and remember it. Be creative. Even if you have to get some help to augment the technical skills your web provider brings to the party.

And, while everything you’re doing to address the Covid-19 crisis is important, let’s be honest – that’s sort of expected these days. Everybody is doing it. So it shouldn’t be the lead or the focus of your home page – certainly not at the expense of selling your property.

So open up your website and look at your home page. Does it create desire?

Or does it just say “This is what we got. It you want it, come in and get it”?

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Here's what gets you through this thing

Here's what gets you through this thing.

It's interesting how many are saying now that they have no money to spend on marketing and advertising.

It's like, business is bad, so we're not going to spend anything on making it better until it gets better all by itself. And that makes no sense.

What we're in is, more or less, a recession, certainly as far the hospitality industry is concerned. And it's a stone fact that businesses that continue to advertise and market themselves during a recession come out of it in far better shape than those who don't. You can look it up.

So maybe you trim a little bit of everything else to come up with some sort of marketing budget. What will it cost to do that? Better question - what will it cost you if you don't?

If there was one thing you could do to help you get through this crisis faster and come out stronger, wouldn't it make sense to find the money somewhere to do it?

Well then . . .

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Get out of that snowbank

 

Start with strategy.

Everything else is tactics. And tactics without a strategy supporting them can be a lot like trying to get your car unstuck from a snowbank. Spinning your wheels with lots of noise and motion, but not so much in the results department.

Advertising, public relations, promotions, PPC, website content – if it’s not all driving off the same strategy, you’re throwing a lot of money out the window. And right about now, with occupancies what they are, nobody in the hospitality business has that kind of cash to throw anywhere.

Here’s a quick illustration of what we mean. A little while back, we were working with a resort in Jamaica, and if you know anything about the Caribbean, you know that summer is charitably known as the “offseason.” As in, who the hell wants to go to the Caribbean in the middle of the summer? And that was a problem for our client in Jamaica.

We’d be happy to give you more details about it, and you can see some of the creative at at nasuti.com, but the essence of the thing is that we repositioned July and August as “Jamaica-Rama,” a special time of the year with special events and offerings almost every night. This strategy was delivered through all of their marketing channels. And all of it built around the resort’s “Sensory Magic” Brand position.

As a result, The number of new website sessions went up by 16%, the bounce rate went down by 15% and the number of active users doubled – and nobody was shopping rate. Not only that, but the client enjoyed their best August ever for both rate and occupancy.

The creative and the media plan were good, but the strategy underneath it all made the difference. Strategy, not tactics, drove the success.

Point is, tactics without a strategy are just things – busy work. And a strategy based on your brand position (which is probably different than what is was pre-Covid) – can be a pretty powerful and cost-effective tool.

So before you sign up for more tactics or jump on the latest hospitality bandwagon idea, put some thought into a strategy that will make everything work that much harder.

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And just like that, evetything changed.

Everything changed, didn't it?

To say these are hard times for the hospitality business would be way past understatement – and it may well be hardest for independent hotels and resorts.  

It’s a chaotic marketing arena. Lead times are shorter. Your target now is within a 300-mile drive. Alternative accommodations are becoming an even bigger threat. ROAS as a measurement tool is out the window. So is the idea of a single-market budget based on historical data or what you’ve done in the past. Budgeting is going to be a singular thrill for a while. Covid-19 restrictions have put a damper on restaurants and spas as revenue sources. Groups business is as close to dried up as it gets. 

 
And the big chains have an edge with those rewards programs of theirs. 

There’s some serious re-thinking needed. You can’t just throw out a PPC campaign and get the business you want anymore. (Not that PPC alone was ever really good enough.) There’s a need for strategy.

But the one thing you absolutely cannot do is sit on your hands and wait for business to get better all by itself. 

Because it won’t.

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Do good, tell people.

Do good, tell people.

According to an article in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal, Gaylord Hotels expects to spend between $10-$12 per room per night on new safety procedures. And, given the economies of scale at Gaylord, there’s a good chance that some smaller independents out there will spend even more per room.

It’s gonna add up.

And that’s where “do good, tell people” comes in. If you’re going to spend that kind of money gassing up your safety procedures in light of Covid-19, you really ought to invest some in letting people know you did it. And that you’re ready to welcome guests. 

Pick an amount that works for you. Maybe a percentage of what you’re spending on safety enhancement. Think of it as applying part of your total Covid-19 adjustment costs to marketing in order to make sure the rest isn’t wasted. However you come up with a number, it’s an investment. Because, not only do you have lost revenue you want to make up, but also, you’re spending more on equipment and procedures than you did before. 

It’s not really a question of whether or not you can afford to promote yourself with advertising and marketing communications right now. 

It’s more a question of whether you can afford not to.

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On good ads and doing them

On good ads and doing them.

George Tannenbaum is a LinkedIn connection of ours. He publishes the Ad Aged blog and sends out a newsletter version. George is one of those for whom common sense is a given. 

It’s a good read and always full of good stuff. Check that - it's a terrific read. Check it out here. 

We thought on recent post would be interesting to anybody who traffics in advertising. Here it is in its entirety: 

And here’s the part we hope those who won’t click through to Ad Aged will read anyway: 

"How to Tell if an Ad is Good." 

Surrounded by other ads, would this one get my attention? 

• Do I understand what the product or brand does?
• Do I like the product or brand? 
• Did I learn something interesting about the product or brand? 
• Am I interested enough to learn more? 
• Did I learn something from the communication? (A new feature, capability, offer.) 
• Was I persuaded to do something? Learn more? Clip a coupon? Visit a website? Buy? 
• Did the communication affect positively my feelings toward the brand or product? 

These are all good things to keep in mind when you’re evaluating work your agency brings you. This is what you want them to be doing. 

Reward them when they do.

You need money to make money. Usually.

Getting around the Catch-22 of your comeback.

“Catch-22 – a circumstance with mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.”

Which is to say, sort of like having to advertise and promote your property so you’ll be able to get business when things open up, but not having revenue from recent months to fund it.

But one thing is clear. You’re going to have to do something. You can’t just wait for the dawn to break and open up for business as usual. And any number of studies after recessions (which, in many ways, is where we are now) show that companies that maintain an advertising and marketing communications presence when the economy is down, come out of it faster and better than those who don’t.

So, back to the original question, how do you fund your marketing over the next 4-6 months? Be creative. Assuming they have your best interests at heart (along with their own, of course), your outside marketing communications firms should be willing to work with you. 

We certainly are. We’re open to talking about all sorts of mutually beneficial arrangements. Just remember what Somebody Smart once told us: “A deal isn’t a good deal unless it’s a good deal for everybody.”

And as far as media is concerned, they're most likely going to be open to some creativity when it comes to paying for things. After all, just like everybody else, they could use the business. 

Things have changed, and it’s time to think differently about a lot of things. So here are some ideas. They're geared primarily toward your creative partners, but most can apply to media as well.

Barter.
This works especially well if you’re a resort or in a vacation / getaway-friendly location. Sure, if you’re working with an agency that does a lot of hospitality work, they’ve stayed in a lot of hotels, but here’s the thing – they’re always working when they do.

Take it from us, staying at a resort or hotel and just going from a meeting to a photo shoot to a meeting to a presentation isn’t the same as chilling by the pool and seeing the sites around town for a few days. It may seem like a busman’s holiday, but it’s not.

Stretch out payment terms.
Maybe pay for three or four months of work in five to seven. OK, for the agency, it might be half a loaf for a while, but a) what’s good for you is usually good for them, b) half a loaf is better than none and c) if it’s a project, the agency will still see some income after they’re done.

Deferred payment.

There’s always the possibility of a “no payments for 60 days” kind of thing, perhaps for a small premium. Car dealers are doing it. Of course, the healthier the assignment, the greater the chances an agency will want to do it, but it’s worth exploring in any case.

Performance compensation.

This comes up in the Ad World now and then and the industry is fairly well split on it. We don’t see anything inherently wrong with our compensation being tied to performance, provided everybody agrees on the KPIs up front, and we’re pretty much free to do what we think will work best and have decent resources to do it. Nobody is going to want to take on a project where they get paid for performance unless they get to call a whole lot of the shots. “We’ll pay you based on how successful you are, but we’re going to dictate the approach” isn’t going to work.

Then again, if you’re working with somebody who knows what they’re doing and has a track record of success, you’re not taking much of a risk. Just don’t expect to pay on performance and get a deep discount.

This one may seem obvious and self-serving, but here it is anyway. 

A really good way to make limited marketing dollars go further is to work with an agency that will give you a lot for your money. Like maybe a small agency that can keep costs down and knows how to do a lot with a little and has 30 years of hospitality advertising success. (We can hook you up with an agency like that.)

Honest. There is a way to finance a marketing plan to promote your comeback. 

Just don’t skip doing it.

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"On logos" (A blast from the past - from 2015 actually.)

(This is a re-run of a post we ran in 2015. We liked it then; we like it now.)

That's a beautiful logo. So what?

An award-winning logo never brought anybody any business.

Neither has a really cool color palette or set of identity guidelines.

Those are all part of Branding – usually the domain of design studios and often confused with "Brand." Not the same thing. And in all honesty, it kind of honks me (me, Woody Hinkle) that design studios often seem content to let the distinction go unnoticed by clients.

If you've read anything on our web site or know anything about us, you know that the two things we do are Brand Development and Creative. We're not a design studio and don't seek out that kind of work. Oh, we can design a logo or web site and produce a corporate identity guide. And Frank (that would be ace art director Frank Salonek) can come up with a color palette with the best of them.

But we tend to try to avoid doing that stuff if the client doesn't have a clear Brand or until we've helped them develop one. What the hell good does it do to have a beautiful logo on a snazzy brochure if your marketing materials aren't telling anybody why the hell they ought to do business with you?

And I'm here to tell you right now in no uncertain terms that people don't do business with you because of your logo. We can go out back and fight about it if you want, but it's the truth

People will do business with you because of what you offer that the Next Guy doesn't. Or you offer it in a way that's more appealing than the Next Guy. That differentiation is what you have to clarify first. Then, you can make sure your Branding – the logo, ad campaign, tag line and all the rest (which we can and will produce very well for you thankyouverymuch) – follow your Brand.

While I realize that I can't paint everybody with such a broad brush, it has been my experience that design studios and PR firms often have one thing in common: They are focused on tactical things – what the logo looks like, what type face works best, what hot-diggity-dog cool stuff they can put in the web site, or what the message ought to be in the next press release.

And none of that stuff matters at all, if they aren’t working off a single Brand strategy.

Because your Brand is, well, it's the reason why anybody should give a damn what the hell you're selling.

The old joke about clients often revolves around "make the logo bigger." I'd say, make the logo second.

Do the Brand first.

"This is not my first rodeo."

The case for “been there, done that.”

Hotels and resorts will start to re-open before long and, in a way, it’s unnerving as hell. It’s kind of like we’re standing on the edge of a cliff and about to step off. 

That’s some scary territory down there – serious “we need to change what we are and how people look at us” stuff. A bigger boat is definitely in order, because that’s a big-ass shark of a challenge headed our way.

And it’s not a problem new PPC keywords or cosmetic changes to your website or nudges or teases or even Instagram alone can solve. It’s a lot more than that and gets down to some basic strategies about who you are and the overall thinking behind your marketing communications.

Which means you need somebody on the team who’s seen this movie already. There’s no substitute for experience.

It's almost like starting over - 

No matter what sort of hotel or resort you are – tropical, urban, convention, all-suites, all-inclusive, limited-service, suburban or luxury – you’re going to have to re-think a whole lot more than just your AdWords. Like who you are, how you do business and why the hell anybody ought to come by and stay for a few days. You’re going to need the kind of 360-degree thinking skills and knowledge of how hotels and hotel marketing works that one simply doesn’t pick up in their first five years in the business.

It’s going to take experience to pull the hospitality industry out of its current nose-dive, not just technology. The expertise a seasoned hand can offer was hard to get, and it’s precisely because of that experience that they can help. Someone who has stared into the abyss once or twice already will come in handy.

For example - 

If for example, you do a lot of groups business or you’re (yikes!) a convention hotel, your challenge is about as close to re-purposing as it gets in the hotel business. That calls for some creative thinking.

Here’s another example. Sadly, the younger, more junior people at companies all over the country were some of the first ones out the door when layoffs started. Many Millennials who are already saddled with college loans and not a lot of cash on hand are now out of work – so they’ll probably be travelling even less.

Your target audience just got older.

You’re going to want a message (and creative delivery of it) that resonates with that more mature, moneyed group. Somebody who can actually relate to that target is your best bet for getting that particular job done. Sorry, but most 20-somethings simply don’t know that much about how 50- and 60-somethings think and process.

The point is - 

There’s more, of course. But the point is, the expertise of Brand, advertising, public relations and marketing communications pros who can honestly say “this is not my first rodeo” and the breadth of their experience is going to . . . well, let’s just say it’s almost impossible to undervalue their contribution, as we head out into that post-Covid-19 world.

There's plenty of experienced talent out there you can call on. If you have an agency, make sure there’s a seasoned hand or two on your team. If you have anybody left in-house, think about getting some outside consulting to help out for a while. And if you use a freelancer, make sure they aren’t right out of art school. 

Because you are going to need a bigger boat.

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